First-class Esther has no plans to leave her post

By Catherine MacGillivray

February 2010

See this article as it appears in the magazine

WHEN Esther Brauer took over the post office in Kylesku in 1953 she began giving the mail service a lifetime stamp of approval.

And 56 years later, the sprightly 78-year-old has no plans to retire.

Esther has been with the post office through all the changes over the years, including computerisation, and remains dedicated to her role at the heart of the remote Sutherland community.

In addition to running the post office, she was also the community’s “postie” for 10 years, delivering the mail on the 18-mile route when nobody else could be persuaded to take on the part-time job.

She retired from this position at the age of 60 and was given a gold watch by the community for her services. Post Office Counters Ltd presented her with a Caithness Glass bowl, paperweight and clock when she celebrated 40 years as postmistress, and a stainless steel watch when she marked her half-century.

Now with her sights firmly set on 60 years behind the post office counter, Esther continues to serve customers in the 
8ft x 6ft wooden shed at the back door of her house.

“It’s a lot different to when I first started. We just had paper and pen back in those days,” she told Highland Life.

“I wasn’t interested in getting a computer but all the post offices had to do it a few years ago.”

After a day’s training at the next-door Kylesku Hotel, Esther went home with a sore head but had mastered the basics of the new technology.

“I fiddled around, and with the help of good literature provided, I was soon able to use the computer,” she said.

Esther is originally from Elphin, 18 miles away, and settled in Kylesku aged 18 when she married her first husband, Ian Clark.

The newly-weds moved into his parents’ house and she took over the post office from his mother Dolina when the older couple went to live in Tain.

After Ian died a number of years ago Esther wed widower Walter Brauer, former head ferry man at Kylesku and moved a mile along the road to his home at 3 Ferry House.

Although the ferry ceased to cross the loch when a road bridge was built in 1984, Kylesku continues to attract a large number of visitors.

And the post office is regularly the point of call for anyone looking for information.

Esther is happy to act as an unofficial tourism ambassador and often gives directions to nearby Eas-coul-Alluin, the highest waterfall in Britain, which can be best accessed by boat from Loch Glencoul

Nowadays, the post office offers services such as banking and insurance but most folk continue to use it to mail their letters and enjoy a blether with Esther.

Old friends are welcomed in for a cup of tea and Esther’s poodle barks to give a friendly alert if strangers are at the door.

At Christmas time the mailbag is full of cards to Esther herself from well-wishers all over the world.

“It’s mostly in the summer that I’m busy,” she said. “Kylesku is a very small place and is like a ghost town in the winter. A lot of the folk I knew when I first started at the post office are dead and their houses are now holiday homes. The new folk that have moved in are nice though.”

And while in years gone by the post office was open all day, the hours are now until just 2 o’clock during the week and 12.30pm on Saturdays.

Esther is glad that this gives her more time to get on with housework but says that computerisation makes it hard to find anyone to stand in for her if she wants to “gallivant”.

“I love gallivanting but having the post office is very tying and it’s not so easy to get away any more. Relief people don’t want to use the computer.”

But for now she is happy that Kylesku has escaped several rounds of post office closures and is looking forward to many more years as postmistress

“I enjoyed it right away when I started back in 1953 and still do, even though I should have retired years ago,” she says. “I hope I can continue for a long time yet.”